Not the best day of the year

Something had been bothering me all day today. I didn’t think that it would be bad or anything but something wasn’t right. I’m not sure how this really affected me, but things were just out of place today. I just wasn’t myself today. I had wanted to be ahead of the game today, but somehow always found myself behind. I had set my alarm today for 5:00am, but didn’t really get up till around 6:00am. That was the time I was actually planning to leave my house. I eventually got out and left around 6:30am. Usually it takes me about 2 hours to get to work, but somehow I arrived a bit faster than that. I’m very happy to report that because I really didn’t want to be late today.

After I arrived at school, I had to change into our sport outfits because this week is the sports festival and all the teachers are changing their clothes to match that. I wish I would have known about this yesterday since I was the one of the few teachers that wasn’t wearing a sports uniform. I didn’t bring any to school either. But today I brought it and had to get changed in the morning. I was incredibly tired today too.

My first class today was with the 11th grade Yuri. I think that it started off great and everything was going pretty smooth. We were talking about movies and going over the Gone with the wind lesson that I’ve been teaching the students over the past few weeks. It was a prelude to their listening comprehension test that will be during the next week of class. We also went into what their favorite movies were. Since we only have 40 minutes the time flew by really quickly. The students weren’t really participating and I had to call on them a few times to get them to speak up, but other than that, it wasn’t too bad.

My second class today was with 8th grade Yuri. This was a pretty tame day for them. They didn’t really react to too much today and they were good. The only thing that really distracted them was that I was wearing a sports uniform rather than a suit and they could see the lace in of my necklace. So they wanted to see what I was wearing, which distracted the class a little bit. But other than that, it went by pretty quick and smoothly. We just did a little out of the book on weekend plans and then did the September September chant.

The third class of the day was with 10th grade Fuji. We did a lesson on sports today. Since this weekend is the sports festival. We asked what sports they liked from the book and had them practice the dialogue with their partners back and forth. It was a bit lame to be honest with you and I really didn’t enjoy it all too much, but that was just because I wasn’t having the best day at this point. My day started to turn around, and I’m not sure why at this time. I was asked how often I play tennis and I responded with 2 times a month and thought that was pretty active. Considering that I work 5 days a week for about 10 hours and have to walk home about 30 minutes and walk to the station which is about 30 minutes everyday, I considered myself to be active. And since I have to do two clubs at school, which takes up a lot of time, I don’t really get a chance to play tennis. Since I’m picking up the other person’s slack because they decide that they don’t want to go to club, that’s just extra work for me. So I think that 2 times a month is very good. And that’s only for September and maybe for October. I think that when it’s November I’ll be able to be more active.

The fourth class of the day and when I started to realize my demise was with 11th grade Kiku. At the beginning of this class, I was getting all confused about what was going on. I had made some mistakes that really are uncharacteristic of me. I confused which teacher I was going to be teaching with and when the period was. I didn’t have any of my papers copied that I needed for the class and just was in a daze for some reason. I had a plan of what I wanted to do, but decided that it might be a little bit difficult for them without the complement of another handout that I had prepared. So as I tried to get them copied the printer had a problem. Of course this was perfect timing that both the school’s printers had problems. I think it was a curse on me today. Then in class I had confused what they had already done. Since they had moved from Friday to Wednesday, I wasn’t really sure what we covered and what we didn’t. I realized in the middle of class that we are actually behind. I needed to get them caught up on the lesson so that they wouldn’t have to do a bulk of the work at one time and all at the same time too. I want them to do well and to learn their material. But I just was off and it showed today. I was fumbling around with the words that I wanted to use and what I wanted to do. I was able to pick it up near the end and gave them a lot of time to work on it, but most couldn’t get the work finished in time.

The fifth class was 9th grade Kiku and the lesson was on Sports. In the book we reviewed the talking about the future lesson with the dialogue. We did that for a little bit. Then we moved onto the September September chant so they could get excited about that. After we finished up the chant, there was just enough time to listen to a rap for a few times. The rap was something rather difficult and especially since it wasn’t a listening activity as much as it is a comprehension activity of the jobs and occupations that were listed. The speed of the rap was a bit fast and the words were a bit difficult to hear. So I didn’t think that the students would be able to do it very well, but they surprised us by being able to do at least a majority of it. I was a bit surprised about that. But some people weren’t interested and didn’t do anything. I wouldn’t think that this would be the highest level class in the 9th grade, but it appears as it is.

The last class of the day was with 9th grade Fuji, and the lesson was pretty much the same as the one before it, but some how things just didn’t end up the same. They are a pretty high level class, but they didn’t seem like it today. Things went wrong, right from the get-go and I wasn’t happy with the results. We had done the same things in the last class, but things were much slower. The students were slower in response and they had a lack of motivation that was very uncharacteristic of them. I wanted to push them along because I thought that they would be able to do it, but they weren’t. We started with the book and did a little dialogue, but since no one was responding, I just had to move on. We then went into the rap of “we’re going to be.” It was too difficult for them and they didn’t understand what was going on. They couldn’t pick up the vocabulary or even hear the words. They were trying really hard and just were struggling through it. We had to listen to it a few times and I had to explain it a few times as well. I explained it a little too much and more than I really wanted to. I was getting really annoyed with the situation and I suppose that the goals of the class weren’t obtained because they weren’t discussed beforehand. It would have been nice to know what was going on before I’d have to go and teach the lesson. Not in the middle of class, when it’s in front of students. It makes me look like I’m the one that is not prepared, but in actuality, it was the other person involved. At this point, we ran out of time, and I didn’t get a chance to go to the September September chant, but I don’t really feel that it’s a loss to the students since I probably wouldn’t be too motivated to do it.

I wasn’t really having a good day at this point and decided that the earliest time possible, I’d like to go home and just finish the day. Some times it’s just better to finish the day than to just drag it out. I just wanted it to be over so that I wouldn’t damage anything else anymore.

In English club today, the girls were acting a bit weird. None of them sat in the front of the room and they were all huddled in the back of the room. We didn’t sit in our usual spot to talk and they just got started with their culture festival work. So I set up the room for nothing. So next time I won’t set up the room unless they want it to be set up. I just typed this entry and the previous entry in the time that we did club. I was using the computers in the lab and had set one up for them to use too. I thought that it was a bit useless to have me there, but at this time, it was probably better that I don’t do anything since I wasn’t having a good day today. I didn’t feel to good with everything going on around me today. I just wanted it to be over soon.

I went home and got dinner at Matsuya and just took my time walking home. I didn’t want to rush anything or to make the day any worse so I just came home and went on the computer and took a little rest. That was the best thing for me to do.